Outcomes

Consider the facts: •The damage is already done, and we have no control over what Edward Snowden will do or not do. •The countries that protect Snowden are no models of human rights, and those who are aware of their histories should see the hypocrisy of such posturing. The Snowden affair has affected the U.S. relationship with the countries involved. However, punitive action should not be considered in a hot-headed manner. Russia and China are powerful entities we will have to deal with.

HARRISBURG — Tom Corbett's fellow Republican governors have his back in his quest for a second term. He's going to need them. The Republican Governors Association — a Washington, D.C., political advocacy group — gave Corbett's campaign $210,028, one of its largest donations, to help push his fundraising total to nearly $7 million in 2013, according to campaign finance reports filed Friday in Harrisburg. That was not the largest donation the campaign received in 2013, but it is one more indication national interests could play an increasingly important role in the outcome of Pennsylvania's closely watched 2014 gubernatorial election.

To the Editor: Here are some alternatives to the state's Outcome-Based Education that might improve our plight: Compose a handbook for pre-schoolers, kindergartners, and first graders with basic behavior guidelines, such as: Do not hit, bite, or otherwise injure or verbally attack other children, teachers or pets. Do not steal! Do not throw paper, garbage or trash. Do not abuse your body through gluttony, dieting, drugs (legal or illegal) overindulgence (including TV)! Do try to be friendly and helpful to other children, teachers, parents, policemen, firemen, etc. (unless they threaten or try to harm you.)

E. RUTHERFORD, N.J. - At the MetLife Stadium souvenir stands on Sunday, they were selling things like a bumper sticker that called Super Bowl XVLIII "the coolest game ever. " And there was a mini-football for sale with the saying "Rain, Sleet or Hail Mary. " Clearly, the potential of bad weather was one of most intriguing aspects of this first "outdoor-in-a-cold-weather" Super Bowl. As it turned out, the bad weather never showed up. Neither did Denver. Matter of fact, the Broncos could have used some of Mother Nature's nasty stuff.

To the Editor: Congratulations to the state Board of Education for passing the Learning Outcome Plan. This plan allows for more flexibility in the curriculum and the stimulation of positive changes throughout our schools. There is work to be done on assessment measures and guidelines; however, progress always demands time and effort. The outcomes also provide the opportunity for teachers to stress honesty, respect and citizenship to our students. Improvement in these areas will certainly benefit our schools, as well as our communities.

There are only two possible outcomes for the U.S. military occupation of Iraq. The first is to begin the orderly and total withdrawal of U.S. forces. The second is a helter-skelter, Vietnam-type debacle with U.S. helicopters ferrying officials off rooftops in Baghdad's Green Zone. Anything short of the first option, such as keeping U.S. troops there, guarantees the second outcome. None of the candidates for the presidency should be allowed to offer evasive responses to the question, "Will you leave any U.S. troops in Iraq?"

To the Editor: Paul Carpenter's Jan. 5 column was on target in stating that high school diplomas are currently meaningless. Our schools are failing to prepare students for our increasingly complex and technological world. But the schools are not alone in the responsibility for preparing children for adulthood; parents bear that burden as well. However, if the survey reported in The Morning Call on Jan. 3 is correct, parents do not care that our students are falling behind other countries in academic performance.

The bottom line in education is how much students learn. There's a national consensus that American schoolchildren aren't learning enough to enable them to compete in a global market. To push Pennsylvania public schools toward better performance, the state Board of Education last week approved new educational standards. Rather than stressing how and what students are taught, the state board proposes to emphasize results. How any of the state's 501 school districts achieve the new educational goals will be left up to their discretion.

To the Editor: As a concerned environmental science student in the East Penn School District, I find it appalling that citizens of Lehigh County are attempting to prevent the expansion and renovation of the Trexler Game Preserve. Instead of destroying the conservation goal of the preserve, the expansion will actually make the park more of a preserve and less of a zoo than it is in its current state. Fears of a giant traffic increase are not legitimate, as the expected traffic increase is very minimal.

It has been a long time since a bureaucratic detail so obscure has caused debate so bitter. Outcome-Based Education, the final details of which are to be voted upon tomorrow by the state Board of Education, has divided communities and local school boards. It has filled the rotunda of the state capitol with protesters. Governor Casey, who says he supports the program, used a tactical retreat when its adoption was scheduled for a vote in November. School district administrators are being very careful of what they say about it. As sometimes happens in debate over public affairs, just what is at issue becomes obscured.

WASHINGTON - In the hours after the U.S. Senate announced a deal to effectively pass a clean government funding bill and a debt limit increase, Lehigh Valley Rep. Charlie Dent tried not to gloat. But swarmed by a dozen political reporters in a dim basement hallway as he approached a House Republican meeting, Dent couldn't help himself when one noted that some conservative lawmakers blame him and other so-called moderate Republicans for backing down from defunding or delaying Obamacare.

Consider the facts: •The damage is already done, and we have no control over what Edward Snowden will do or not do. •The countries that protect Snowden are no models of human rights, and those who are aware of their histories should see the hypocrisy of such posturing. The Snowden affair has affected the U.S. relationship with the countries involved. However, punitive action should not be considered in a hot-headed manner. Russia and China are powerful entities we will have to deal with.

The price of electricity for PPL Electric Utilities' default residential customers will go up next month, even as it heads in the opposite direction for default commercial customers, the Allentown company announced Wednesday. The new "price to compare" for residential customers will be 8.2 cents a kilowatt-hour, up from the current 7.2 cents. This applies only to customers who have not chosen an alternative supplier and therefore receive "default" supply service from PPL Electric Utilities.

I do not agree with the premise that this administration's goals include deficit reduction and immigration reform. The first is a euphemism for higher taxes and the latter, amnesty, when passed or a political point in the next election if not passed. That aside, the mainstream media — aka Obama's public relations agency — control the outcome. If they act as the founders envisioned, it is likely that some careers will be over or badly tarnished with a potential for some to do jail time.

The Lehigh County conservative fiscal movement got a boost Tuesday as Republican voters nominated Scott Ott for county executive. Ott easily cleared the primary hurdle, grabbing 56 percent of the unofficial votes to Browning's 44 percent with 88 percent of precincts reporting. The outcome sets up a hot November race between Ott, who has promised to scrutinize every dollar spent, and Tom Muller, a Republican-turned-Democrat who supports the county's tradition of funding the zoo, open space and local nonprofits.

Tiger Woods didn't win the Masters, but he certainly dominated its coverage - again. There is not a more compelling figure in sports. He is Notre Dame when the Fightin' Irish are relevant in college football. He is the Yankees in the World Series or Duke-North Carolina when they're both legit NCAA championship contenders in basketball. People are drawn to this guy, even if it's to root like crazy against him. The controversy surrounding Woods' re-do of his second-round shot on No. 15 on Friday resonated throughout the weekend and was even the No. 1 topic on sports-talk radio on Monday until those horrific explosions marred the Boston Marathon.

Outcome-Based Education took a bashing at a meeting last night where people questioned its cost, the values and attitudes it will thrust on children, and whether it will make Pennsylvania's education system any better. About 150 people attended the three-hour session at Emmaus High School last night where a panel of educators spoke on the proposed state curriculum regulations, Outcome-Based Education. Known as OBE, the state plan would require students to meet certain learning outcomes to earn a diploma, rather than relying on the time they spend in a classroom.

To the Editor: I couldn't believe what I read in The Morning Call's Jan. 10, story, "Pa. to weigh Outcome Based Education on Thursday." I quote Joseph Compton: "Schools are saying it's OK or even desirable to have a one-parent family. I'm saying it's not desirable." Does this man listen to himself speak? We do not live in a perfect society. Should a man or woman who is widowed remarry because it's "desirable?" What about a battered wife? Should she stay married, risking injury, even death, because it's "desirable?"

My entire professional career has been in education. Over those 35 years, I have been evaluated every year. It was my experience that teachers accepted the reality of a yearly evaluation that rates them on performance. That acceptance has only recently been challenged when politicians and legislators began to suggest that standardized testing should be the sole instrument for judging competency. The original proposal was that it counts for 50 percent, meaning that one test given once a year would serve as half of a teacher's final rating.

Already facing a test from within his own party, Pennsylvania's longest-tenured congressman has a new set of voices challenging his bid for an 11th term. And they're coming from far outside of the state. Democrat Tim Holden, who is facing Lackawanna County attorney Matt Cartwright in the 17th District primary, is under attack from political action committees based in Texas and California. The Campaign for Primary Accountability, a Dallas-based Super PAC, says it plans to spend six figures on "full spectrum warfare" again Holden.